News

In April, Lewis & Clark’s Gamma of Oregon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa initiated more than 40 new members, including one alumna. A faculty review committee selects students on the basis of academic excellence and breadth in the liberal arts as well as good character. The committee chooses alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction since graduating at least 10 years ago.

Delusional optimists. That’s the moniker opposing counsel gave Brenna Bell ’97, J.D. ’01 and her band of grassroots organizers from Tryon Life Community Farm, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainability education.

Rita Ott Ramstad M.A.T. ‘98 channeled her emotions into “A Wish for My Children,” the last poem in her autobiographical collection The Play of Light and Dark, for which she won the 2003 Oregon Book Award.

Perched on a stool in his home-based shop, Don Floren ‘53 grips a surgically sharp carving tool and begins shaping a large block of Oregon alder. Faced with the diminishing availability of Honduras mahogany, his quintessential favorite material, Floren has adopted alder–an abundant local wood that carves and finishes nicely.

During eight days in March, President Tom Hochstettler, Board Chair John Bates, and Director of International Student Services Greg Caldwell traveled to London, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong, visiting some 120 faculty, students, alumni, parents, donors, and Lewis & Clark friends, as well as colleagues in education, business, and government.

Each year, Lewis & Clark honors alumni from all three schools for their outstanding accomplishments and community service. These alumni distinguish themselves in a variety of disciplines by drawing on the values and skills they developed while on campus.

Brandon Wiebe is the founder and president of the Lewis & Clark College Cheese Club, which hosts biannual tasting soirees that draw upwards of 100 attendees in search of cheese snacks and enlightenment. Last spring, Wiebe and a dedicated cadre of campus cheese aficionados organized the first-ever Pacific Northwest Symposium on Cheese, held at the College.

Lewis & Clark College toasts its many alumni and friends who are active in the wine industry. We’ve done our best to include everyone, but we may have missed a few. If you know of others, please e-mail chron@lclark.edu so we can add their names to our online version of this article. Thank you–and cheers!

When Jean Ward joined the undergraduate faculty of Lewis & Clark in 1964, the College had no gender studies program, no related symposium, no affirmative action or sexual harassment policies, and no critical mass of women faculty. By the time she retired in spring 2006, 42 years later, all of those elements were firmly in place.

Friends of Rain, a newly formed ensemble made up of tenure-track and adjunct music faculty, held its inaugural concert on February 18. The group’s repertoire is drawn from the last 50 years and features new works by established masters, Lewis & Clark faculty composers, and guest composers in residence.

The Oregon Center for Inquiry and Social Innovation at Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling hosted an international conference, titled Indigenous Ways of Knowing: To Teach, Lead, and Counsel, on July 19 and 20. Participants explored the question, “How can educators, counselors, and community leaders best serve Native communities?”